Old Ghosts
by Keema
Summary: Seized by an obscure and sudden craving, the Doctor takes Donna and Martha to another world, a new adventure, and old sorrows.


The sound of the TARDIS engines humming to life intruded upon Martha as she sat reading a medical text in the library. Head snapping up attentively, she carefully marked her place with a bookmark – no dog-earing any of the Doctor's books! – and jogged out to the control room. A bleary-eyed Donna shambled out of her bedroom, two doors up from the library, and stumbled up the hallway after Martha. Reaching the doorway leading into the control room within moments of each other, the two women looked about curiously as the Doctor madly leapt about the consol. They hadn't been anywhere in particular, just floating along in space, having a bit of a breather after their last hectic adventure.

Being a generally blunt being, if good intentioned, Donna spoke first. "What the bloody hell's going on? Thought we was having a break, like. Quiet evening in, that sort of thing. Here you are capering like the loon you are and we're moving again!" She huffed indignantly. "I was having a good sleep, I was!"

"Sorry, Donna, but at they say no time like the present to go visiting!" the Doctor shouted gaily at them from across the room. "Felt the need to drop in on an old favourite planet of mine."

"Where would that be, then?" Martha joined the conversation, strolling across the room and dropping into the pilot's chair. "Drathniklia," he replied. "It's about twenty thousand parsecs beyond Barcelona – you know, the place where the dogs have no noses." The Doctor roared with laughter. "That joke's always funny! Don't you think that's funny?" Receiving the barest of smiles from Martha and a grunt from Donna, the Doctor cleared his throat and continued. "Anyway, went there many years ago for a visit, nothing special, mind, just planet-hopping as I am want to do- and I found the most marvellous curry-hut!"

"Curry?" Martha raised an eyebrow as the Doctor grinned manically and Donna joined her on the chair. "We're going halfway across the universe in the middle of the night, for curry?"

"Well, when you put it like that…."

Martha closed her eyes and counted to 10.

Donna, in typical fashion, erupted. "What the bloody hell are you on?! Curry? Could 'ave whipped one of them up in that kitchen of yours, never mind flinging us out of our sleep! I-"

"Donna, please! There are some things in this universe worth being jostled out of sleep for, and believe you me, the curry they cook on Drathniklia isn't like ANY other curry you can find ANY where in else in said universe!" the Doctor straightened his tie indignantly before resuming his fiddling at the consol. "Well, all I can say is, I hope you're right," said Martha, stretching with a yawn and standing. "I might go have a nap while we, er, commute." As though on cue, the TARDIS landed with a boom, and the Doctor swept past to grab his coat. Martha sighed lightly and turned on her heel, while Donna scowled before standing. "Guess we'd better get dressed then," she muttered, and both women moved in an orderly fashion to freshen up for their 'curry date'. "Well, don't be long! Curry like this won't wait!" the Doctor called after them. Martha grinned cheekily from her doorway. "No," she agreed, affably. "But you will!" And with that, her door swung closed, leaving the Doctor fuming slightly as he stood waiting, a constant litany regarding patience cycling through his head. "You know, sometimes," he muttered. "Sometimes I wonder why I put up with them…"

_Patience._ Her head swung up with a snap as the Voice spoke to her. "Yes, I know. I am being patient." Her eyes drifted back to the wavering light in which an image of the Doctor could be seen. "It is just… difficult to remain so, when he is so near." She smiled briefly. "We're going to give him an awful fright, you know. He's never believed in anything other than what he can see and touch, but this…"

We do as we must. You know, as well as I, why this meeting is so important. For you, as well as the last Time Lord. She sighed, knowing her hearts would be heavy in her chest, did any of them actually exist. She sighed. "I know. And for know other reason would I have agreed to this-" her eyes slid momentarily towards the area where the Voice came from. "No matter who You are."


End file.
